"That's really cool, Decoda! So you're pretty strong then! There aren't really any gyms nearby Lacunosa Town, so I'm not too familiar with them... Oh, but a few years back, I went on a field trip to Humilau City's Water Gym. The setup in there was amazing!" He smiles as he recounts the memory fondly. "Other than that, I don't have too much experience with Gyms!"

As they reach the grassy field, he crouches down to begin scouring around for a new Pokemon to add to his team. It would have to be something that could cover at least a few of Chespin's weaknesses, which were unfortunately numerous. Not knowing Kanto's native Pokemon didn't help either. Either way, hopefully he'd get something good!

Chespin leaped off of his shoulder and begin to sniff the grass near Cerise, letting out small cries of "Ches!" when it finished searching a patch of grass and had moved on to another. It looked up at the sound of Catia's voice, and looked in her direction.

Catia sees Poochy's trembling and sighs, her gaze softening as she pets him a little bit gently. "It's okay Poochy, you can go in your pokeball for this one. I'll try my best from out here." She coos to it, tapping it on the head with its pokeball and sending the Pokemon inside. Catia then puts the pokeball away in her bag before reaching into her back pocket for her leather gloves. Slipping them on and tapping her fists together, she gets into a battle stance, grinning at the Mightyena. "Well then c'mon big boy! Let's see what you've got!" She taunts at it, clearly showing her lack of fear of it before gesturing for the Mightyena to take the first move.

"You know, as long as you're determined enough, you shouldn't have any trouble facing a gym leader! But even though the gyms look amazing, you can't get distracted. Use the battlefield around you to your advant-- huh?! Catia?"

He spun around, the device blinking, repeating "searching" in a robotic voice. Mudkip yipped at the noise Mightyena caused as it appeared suddenly. It began to growl and Decoda inhaled deeply. Time to fight.

"Hey Cerise, get your Chespin on standby. That looks like an evolved Pokemon, but I'm not sure."

He quickly racked his brain to remember what moves his Pokemon knew, hoping to jump in with an attack before Catia got hurt.

"Huh?" Cerise got up from crouching in the underbrush, patting the dirt off of his pants. Seeing the Mightyena approaching Catia, he pieced together the situation. He pushed up the rim of his glasses as he called Chespin to his side. A sudden robotic sound from his belt prompted him to reach down for its source-- his pokedex. It seemed to have gathered information on this pokemon, as well as their three starter Pokemon.

"Mightyena, the Bite Pokemon. Mightyena travel and act as a pack in the wild. They defeat foes with perfectly coordinated teamwork. The memory of its life in the wild compels the Pokemon to obey only those trainers that it recognizes to possess superior skill." The Pokedex spoke in a monotone, robotic voice. Cerise examined the Mightyena again.

"Mightyena, huh... The Pokedex says these things usually travel in packs. So, there may be more around here...? An ambush?!" He paused in thought as he lowered the pokedex. He glanced around the brush, searching for other Mightyena. "Chespin, be on guard!"

Catia huffs and blows the lock of blonde hair out of her face. "Who the hell're you? More importantly, why should I care? I'm going back to looking around." She said as she now ignores the girl completely and continues to look around for new Pokemon.

Catia frowns at Loka. "Fear? I don't know what you mean by fear at all. I wasn't raised to be afraid of others. But if you insist on wanting me to lower my temperament then fine." She starts to take her gloves off and put them away before taking a deep breath to calm herself. "The thought of a fight tends to get me excited. My apologies for my rudeness. However....your Mightyena is cute~" She says, grinning at it.

"More four-legged and furry Pokemon, eh? Fire and dark are quite the combo."

He let his Pokedex scan them, repeating what Cerise's did so he could hear it a second time, before shutting the lid and slipping it back into his pocket. He lowered his Pokeball as well, now knowing that these weren't wild. He also scanned Loka with his eyes; as dangerous as she was, she was beautiful too. But what was she talking about? Did it have something to do with the whip she was carrying?

Mudkip shivered a little in place, but maintained most of its toughness. Looking at the blue creature quiver, Decoda's hypothesis about Loka's dangerousness just solidified a little more.

"Mudkip, stay by me," he whispered, then upped his pitch for his next question. "Are you from any regional team? Your costume doesn't match Team Rocket at all, but..."

He really wanted to relax, but the signals from his Pokemon and the surprise instilled into Cerise and Chespin (and presumably the other wild Pokemon she scared away with her presence, IF she was telling the truth) got his teeth grit tightly.

Only a few moments into meeting her and Cerise had easily deduced that. Spending time on his grandparents Day-care had helped him be able to identify signs of aggression with ease. After all, who else would break up Day-care fights? Even so, looking at Loka's Pokemon... just made Cerise even more uncomfortable. He glanced down at Chespin, whose body language was teeming with hostility towards the girl with the whip. Decoda had seemed to have noticed the danger presented as well. But Catia, on the other hand...

"...Just who is she...?" Cerise muttered to himself as he stared at Loka warily.

Smiling and relaxing her shoulders a bit, Catia took out Poochy's pokeball and threw it into the air, the Pokemon coming out onto the ground with a flash. She catches the Pokemon's pokeball before picking Poochy up and into her arms. She walks over to a nearby tree before sitting down and setting Poochy into her lap,taking a deep breath and giving Poochy some much appreciated attention.

Decoda bravely took out his gloved hand, shifting his foot a little closer to Mudkip so the mud fish could latch on and climb up. He grabbed hers once she was finished introducing herself and her Pokemon. His grip was hard thanks to his slightly muscular stature, but he let go after a couple shakes. He wanted to keep the peace for as long as it was possible, and once again dropped a smile onto his cheeks.

"Decoda and Mudkip. Sorry to confuse you. Just a little skeptical, is all! Haven't you heard the warnings? Some of them've gone AWOL."

He refused to say anything about the mission from the Professor, and he hoped the others wouldn't as well. They didn't need any more weights on their shoulders. But maybe she knew a thing or two about the ordeal just in case she was secretly working for them. Mercenaries were always plentiful no matter where you were from.

Cerise glanced at the others, concerned. Although Loka seemed to be friendly... he still couldn't shake off a feeling of unease. "...We're just training right now. Catching pokemon, challenging gyms... fairly common trainer activities."

He walks towards Loka and bows slightly in greeting. In his head, he could only hope that Loka wasn't as sinister as his impression of her was.

Catia sighs peacefully before getting an idea. Seeing as everyone else was busy at that current point in time, she decides to put Poochy on the top of her hat before getting up silently and climbing into the tree she was leaning against. Finding the biggest and most stable branch that she could, she leaned back against the trunk of the tree and put Poochy in her lap again. A heavenly sound starts to come from her as she begins to hum a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her, closing her eyes and letting the tune take her into her own little world. Poochy growls cutely before snuggling into her lap and closing his own eyes, enjoying Catia's voice as it echoes through his ears.

Decoda nodded as Mudkip finished climbing up his back and peered out from behind his bulky guitar case. It looked to the Chespin for confirmation, hoping it was feeling the same about this mysterious girl and her big scary dogs. Poochy was harder to spot from Mudkip's view, but it also looked to the little puppy in the same way.

"So, what kinds of tips do you have for trainers like us? Even the bravest of us still need a little wisdom from seasoned raisers."

He smirked at Catia, who he found climbing the tree with his eyes. When she began humming, he was tempted to whip out his guitar and play along since he found the tune rather nice, but he didn't want to distract from the current situation.

"That don't bother me none. I'm on the hunt for powerful pokemon, so I'd like to join ya. Mostly for company. The road gets lonely when you're traveling alone, even with pokemon. But I'm sure I got an ability or two that could help ya out. Just need the right time to use em."

She rolls up her whip and places it back at her side. The forest that had gone silent, finally went back to making noise. Loka looked at Catia.

"I see the tough act finally dropped."

Loka turned back to Decoda.

"Advice? Ah lets see..." she pondered for a few moments. "Don't be afraid to use force. It's a mistake that a lot of new trainers make. But don't go usin' it all day everyday. Then it'll just get ya killed." she sighed and crouched down, petting her pokemon, before standing back up. "And make sure you dont go and spoil your pokemon. Then they'll think it's 'right to get what they want and become stubborn when then dun get it."

Cerise pondered for a moment. Having a senior trainer to learn the ropes under could be beneficial... and at the very least, maybe she could be a useful bodyguard of sorts? Having Loka around could be good in the long run... He takes off his glasses and rubs the lenses in his shirt to clean them.

Chespin, by now, had waddled over to Mudkip and was speaking to the water-type in hushed tones. Probably sharing their shared unease? Cerise wasn't too sure what their body language quite meant... but the two certainly seemed to be on one accord.

Catia stops her humming and blushes a bit when Loka finally talks to her. She didn't think anyone would be paying a lot of attention to her.

"I don't have any need for being tough if you aren't hostile. Besides, you acted like you were a threat so I responded the way I normally do. When you grow up around a dormant volcano these things happen."

She hops down with Poochy back on her hat before adjusting onto her head and putting a hand on her hip. She takes out her pokedex and adds Loka's two Pokemon to it as well as Mudkip and Chespin before putting it away again. She turns to Loka.

"As far as being helpful goes, the best help you can be to me would be to help me find this fox Pokemon I was looking for. They're really cute and I want one~"

She tells Loka, her tone casual rather than hostile now that both girls were more used to each other.

Loka rolled her eyes. This girl wanted a Vulpix? Just because it was cute?

"If the look of a pokemon is all ya care about, then I hope ya get eaten." she placed a hand on her hip. "And the people in Lavaridge town aren't nearly as rough as you, so I dunno what you're talkin' about. In fact, It's mostly old people an' stuff. By the way, I'm from Mauville. My brother was supposed to come here too. Sumthin' about seein' a professor, but decided to stay back. ANYways, I'm gettin off topic."

Loka looked about the area, then stretched her arms a bit and yawned lazily.

"Ah... Loka? Would you happen to know what kind of Pokemon are found on this route? I was hoping to catch at least one Pokemon while out here..." Cerise speaks up, trying to be conversational with her.

The hat-wearing red-head folded his arms and tilted his head slightly, listening to her advice at first, but then raised his eyebrows once she mentioned “don’t spoil them”. He figured she would be that kind of trainer.

Mudkip looked at Poochy to see if it was feeling uneasy from this Loka girl, especially since she didn’t seem to like Catia. It just wanted to know if its teammates were on the same page, in the hopes that if something unspeakably bad happened to their trainers, they would still be friends.

Once Catia brought up the Vulpix she wanted, Decoda was quite interested in her response, seeing as both her and the fiery blonde were from the same region and that her apparent brother was supposed to be part of their team. He flashed back to when the scientist mentioned “a fourth one”, and completely understood what was going on and why Loka was here… but this was all yet to be confirmed.

He was also very interested in how she would respond to Cerise, him being very new to this kind of thing. He truly hoped both of his partners would get what they really wanted out of this mission.

"I think we have room for one more on our team. I personally don't mind. I may be older than average newbie, but you do look like you know a bit more, streetwise."